What a difference giant volcanic ash makes. Watch the skies change completely in this time-lapse video, showing air traffic returning to normal after being grounded due to the volcano. It gets pretty busy up there.

A visualisation of the northern European airspace returning to use after being closed due to volcanic ash. Due to varying ash density across Europe, the first flights can be seen in some areas on the 18th, and by the 20th everywhere is open.

The flight data is courtesy of flightradar24.com and covers a large fraction of Europe. There are a few gaps (most noticeably France) and no coverage over the Atlantic, but the picture is still clear.

The map data is CC-by-SA openstreetmap.org and contributors.

This CC-by-SA visualisation was produced by itoworld.com with support from ideasintransit.org